Read on Twitter
Really enjoyed this piece, which does a great job of comparing format tweaks in tennis to other sports but being sceptical that the format is the problem in the first place https://twitter.com/MattRacquet/status/1273978437896679425
To me, any initiative to widen tennis's appeal has to take into account
- accessibility and ease of streaming matches
- tournament ticket prices
- elitist reputation
Blaming the length of matches before any of that is just wilfully looking in the wrong direction
- accessibility and ease of streaming matches
- tournament ticket prices
- elitist reputation
Blaming the length of matches before any of that is just wilfully looking in the wrong direction
Not to mention the lack of actual evidence that young people's attention spans can't cope with full tennis matches - it's always felt like something out-of-touch olds think about the kids (but somehow not the teenagers and 20-somethings who comprise the bulk of tennis pros?)
The shift to team-focused events is a different matter - I sense this actually would increase popularity; team sports are indeed more popular generally! - but "tennis is an individual sport" is where I draw the line, even more so than "tennis sets have to be played to 6 games"
I'd be quite interested in non-tennis twitter chiming in on what would get them more into it but vaguely suspect the answer might be "none of the above, or anything really"
